Enter your email to get this FREE printable PDF! You'll also get my weekly letters designed to help you successfully & sustainably transition to a Paleo-style diet.

Like the cautious analytic person that I am, I waited for ages after seeing so many other people obsess over it. Pressure cookers have always scared the crap out of me so I checked all the facts, looked at all the safety ratings/features, and weighed out all the different models. Basically, the Instant Pot wins wins wins. And the price? Crazy.

I’ve been using it probably 3-4 times a week. So far I’ve had really good success with bone broth (gels in just 90 minutes!!!), coconut milk yogurt (I prefer 12-16 hours), BBQ ribs, tougher cuts of meat (like the recipe below), and especially organ meats like heart. And it has completely replaced my slow cooker. I’ll continue to post recipes as I’ve got them!

You can read the notes below to find edits to adjust for your meat size. My experience with doneness doesn’t match up with the recommendations made by Instant Pot in this chart, FYI.

Anyhow, this Maple Smoked Brisket people! I’ve been loving using liquid smoke since we got the Instant Pot. You’ll get a nice smoky flavor from just the smoked sea salt and paprika, but you only need a small amount of liquid smoke to get a pretty-dang-close-to-smoked-with-an-outdoor-smoker taste.

It's free!

GET YOUR COPY

Enter your email to get a FREE printable PDF of this recipe! You'll also get my weekly letters designed to help you successfully & sustainably transition to a Paleo-style diet.

Remove the brisket from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before cooking. Pat it dry with paper towels and set it aside.

Mix the spice blend by combining the maple sugar, smoked sea salt, pepper, mustard powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika. Coat the meat generously on all sides. The rub will get a bit sticky due to the sugar.

Set your Instant Pot to “Sauté” and allow it to heat up for 2-3 minutes. Grease the bottom with a bit of high heat cooking oil and add the brisket. Brown on all sides until deeply golden but not burnt. Turn the brisket to fatty side up and add the broth, liquid smoke, and thyme to the Instant Pot. Scrape the browned bits off the bottom and cover with the lid.

Switch the setting to “Manual” (leave at “High Pressure”) and increase the cook time to 50 minutes. Once finished, allow the Instant Pot to release steam on it’s own (EDIT: I’ve found that using the quick release valve can leave large, leaner cuts of meat tasting a little dry so natural steam release is better for brisket).

Remove the brisket from the pot and cover it with foil to rest. Switch the Instant Pot to “Saute” again to reduce & thicken the sauce (optional) with the lid off for about 10 minutes.

Slice the brisket on a bias and serve it with your favorite whipped veg (this recipe for Creamy Whipped Parsnips shown here) and drizzle with the reduced sauce.

*Notes:

-To 2x, 3x, etc this recipe, scale just the spice mix & liquid smoke accordingly to match up with how much meat you’ve got. The broth needed stays the same regardless of the size meat.

-Make sure you find a liquid smoke that has no additives or MSG. You can skip the liquid smoke but you’ll get a more subtle smoke flavor.

-With a bit of experimentation, I’ve found that increasing or decreasing your meat size by ½ lb. (when the meat is kept whole and not chopped up) requires about a 10 minute change in cooking time. For example, 1 lb. needs about 40 minutes, where 2 lb. needs about 60 minutes. The nice thing about the Instant Pot is that it’s quick and easy to throw the lid back on and add another 10 minutes, as needed.

-If using a slow cooker, brown the brisket in a saute pan before adding it to your slow cooker. Add the broth to the saute pan to deglaze and grab all the flavor from the browned bits. Then pour the broth straight into the slow cooker, along with the liquid smoke and thyme. Cook on “Low” for 6-8 hours or until the meat is tender and slices easily.

Delicious! I thickened the sauce, even added a little bit of tapioca starch to make it gravy like – everyone loved it. I had a larger brisket, 2.5 lbs and so I increased the spice rub by about a third and it worked great.

Did the added time work right? We are preparing to cook a 3 lb brisket right now…planning on 80 minutes. (We have never used the instant pot before: just got it as a gift and this is our first try at anything.)

Whenever you cook under pressure in the IP, there are two methods to release the pressure at the end of the cooking time. A natural steam release (recommend for this recipe) will take about 20-30 minutes and the pressure sensor to the right of the steam release valve will drop on its own. At this point, it’s safe to open the lid. To use the quick release method in other recipes, you’ll move the valve from “sealing” to “venting” immediately after cooking and the steam will escape in a strong, steady stream. The steam is hot to use caution and don’t do this under kitchen cabinets. I hope this helps!

We just made this recipe and loved it. We used brown sugar in place of maple sugar and adjusted the flavors as needed when thickening the gravy. The newer Instant Pot we just got no longer has the *Manual* button as it’s been renamed to *Pressure Cook*. Using that option worked perfectly and we loved the dish.

Hi Jennette, a flank is a completely different cut so the cooking time would likely be very different. Flank has a lot of connective tissue but is also pretty lean so I’m guessing the time would be shorter. Let me know if you try it!

Hey blundin (and others curious), the guidelines above for increasing time for larger size hold fairly true as far as most have experienced. If you have the larger IP, it may vary. And if you cut it into smaller pieces, it’ll go quicker. But keeping 4 lbs of tough meat like brisket whole intact will take close to 120 minutes under high pressure.

Hey Eris, my best guess is your particular size didn’t need quite as much time as you ran it for. Also, I have two IPs and I’ve actually had varying results with time needed based on the size of each (one is the 6 qt and one is 8 qt). So that could be a factor too. I’m glad it was still delicious and juicy though!

I made this as one of my first Instant Pot recipes and used coconut sugar as I couldn’t find the maple sugar. It was delicious!!! I made the whipped parsnips with it as well and felt like I was eating at a fancy restaurant for dinner. 🙂 Thanks for the excellent recipes and helping me learn to use my Instant Pot!

Hi Ashley! How did it turn out? It’s totally normal for meat to curl. Heat causes the proteins to tighten up so curling is normal. You can use a lodge cast iron press (http://amzn.to/2mbROhs) if you want to offset this in the future.

I love your Instant Pot recipes! Hope you don’t mind me sharing some to my FB Instant pot /Cockpot page Behind the Pot. I love that you post recipes that work on both appliances😀 I have a question…any tips on making coconut or almond milk yougurt in the instant pot? DH recently got put on vegan diet(please let it not be for long.he loves his meat,regular yogurt etc and is super cranky now. Lol) diet so Im having to make that instead of regular. Haven’t even made that because I just got my IP. Ty!!!

Hi there! Thank you very much for the kind words 🙂 I have a coconut yogurt recipe over on my Instagram page from awhile back: https://www.instagram.com/p/6jI7W5xsOI/?taken-by=barerootgirl. Simply click the Yogt button at set to at least 12 hours. I use Cultures for Healthy vegan yogurt starter. I recommend placing the yogurt in jars covered with a lid since the condensation from the lid and ring can drop savory flavors (like from this brisket :)) into the yogurt if left uncovered.

I’m trying this for the first time right now and I don’t think I browned each side long enough lol… I didn’t want the spices to burn … just a question, do you sauté on low, normal, or high.., I did high and wasn’t sure how long each side should
take, but I’ll see how it turns out! Love your site 🙂

Do you mean high on Saute or on the Manual setting? Brisket is a very tough cut of meat that needs a lot of time/pressure to become tender so overcooking isn’t too much of a worry here. Be sure to use the Natural Steam Release method and you should be good. Hundreds have made this recipe so I can attest to its viabilty. Let me know how it goes!